SPN 6:01: Exile on Main Street

[oselle]

The only reason I'm even bothering to post a review is because I'm still high off the four beers and five cigs I had while watching that episode.

Without further ado:

1. It was smart to keep Lisa and Ben's presence to a minimum, and to not hammer us over the head with Dean's domesticity. Truth be told, Dean seems to be an awkward fit with suburban life which is exactly what he should be. Despite Lisa's assertion that this was "the best year of her life" we can at least tell it was and continues to be tough going for them. I'm discomfited by Dean telling Sam that he basically pushed Dean into that life...i.e., that he wouldn't have chosen it for himself. It makes Lisa and Ben look like the consolation prize and I don't like that. That's why I'll continue to insist that Dean's "settling down" should only have come at the END of the series so that we'd never have to deal with the consequences of it. Now we've got this big mess with the very likable Lisa and her twelve-year-old son...and this guy who -- by his own admission -- is only with them because he made a deathbed promise to his brother.

2. The promos were pushing a "TRUST NO ONE" tagline and I don't know if that means we're supposed to be wary of Sam and all those Campbells. Are they not who they claim to be?

3. Speaking of all those Campbells...too many Campbells. Based on what I heard from ComicCon, I thought the various and sundry Campbell relatives would be rolled out over the season...HAHAHAHA I should know better than to expect anything approaching subtlety. No, instead we get FOUR of them in the premiere, including Gramps, who apparently has been "brought down" from heaven (?) to chaperone Sam and OH MY GOD doesn't anyone besides me remember that all of Mary's relatives were supposed to be dead? And OH MY GOD are we honestly supposed to believe that these Campbells who, apparently, are to hunting what the Kennedys are to politics, WOULD NOT HAVE LOOKED OUT FOR MARY CAMPBELL'S SONS AFTER SHE DIED? That for the past THIRTY YEARS they have been unaware of the existence of Sam and Dean Campbell-Winchester? Please. I DEFY you to fucking fanwank that shit.

4. BOY, Sera Gamble is sure in love with that Mayflower business, isn't she? I'm seeing a Very Special Thanksgiving episode in full period costume.

5. Speaking of Sera Gamble...bringing back the djinns from Raelle Tucker's great "What Is And Never Should Be" final episode does not make Sera Gamble into Raelle Tucker. Frankly, bringing back the djinns made no sense at all and was one of the klutziest plot bridges I ever saw. So what, they've been hanging around for four fucking years waiting to get revenge on Dean?

6. I'm giving Sam a temporary pass on his behavior because I don't know if Sam is really Sam or if Sam was so fucked up by hell that he's all dead inside or what. But there's simply no excuse for Bobby at all. Oh right, Dean's having such a wonderful life in suburbia that HE WOULDN'T WANT TO KNOW HIS BROTHER WAS ALIVE. Mmmhmm.

7. How did Dean even manage to find a manufacturing job in this economy?

8. Jensen clearly put on weight and should not be wearing his shirt tucked into his jeans. Hey, someone had to say it.

9. If Sam Adams Oktoberfest Ale is in the supermarket it shouldn't be ninety fuckin degrees out.

10. Whatever.

Comments

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I expected to hate it because I thought we'd be drowned in Lisa-and-Dean-4Ever! schmoop...and then the Lisa-and-Dean part turned out to be just about the best part of the episode, especially when compared to the sheer idiocy of the Campbell clan. So yeah, that was a surprise.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

You know, a lot of people have said they almost wished they'd waited until next week for Sam to show up, but I think this is a big reason why--and I wonder given the Jensen interview if that's part of why too. Because I feel like yet again the Dean part was surprisingly coherent emotionally. Lisa and Dean weren't schmoopy, but they were very believable as two people who found each other and worked together and made a life that was happy for both of them.

Then Sam shows up and it's suddenly seeming like a dream. I've no idea how Sam works with these people etc. In the interview there's Jensen saying that the character suddenly feels weird and he's trying to tie it to the guy he's always played. Meanwhile JP is like, "He's a lot less soft now he's been in the really bad hell for 5 minutes."

Uh, Jared? Wasn't that Sam's arc the past 2 seasons that he was more badass and cold? How could he get more cold? Honestly in this ep it seemed like he'd come out the other side and was no longer cold but almost cheerful.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I think that if the episode had focused entirely on Lisa and Dean a lot of viewers (myself included) would have gotten pretty nervous. There's a way that could have been done well...but you know they would have gone full-tilt soap opera on us if they'd devoted the premiere to Lisa and Dean.

That interview was pretty eye-popping, wasn't it, not just because of what Jensen said, but because of how starkly it contrasted the way the two actors approach their work. I've really come to believe that at least part of the problem with Sam's character is that Jared's the type of actor who takes what he's given and that's that, while Jensen will really put thought into what he's being asked to do. Listening to Jared talk about Sam was like listening to Bobby talk about Sam last season...I had no idea what either one of them were talking about. He made some comment about Sam not being "lovey dovey" anymore and I'm like...when was the last time we saw Sam being anything close to loving? Two years ago? Three? Jared sounds like he's just parroting what the writers say about Sam, while Jensen's really questioning what they're doing.

[mangokulfi.livejournal.com]

Yeah that's how the two actors come across to me as well. Also the whole sensitive Sam thing always felt more like fanon than real canon. Sure Sam had moments like that and more of them in the first two seasons but so did Dean. :shrug:

Anyway, yeah I've always felt that Jensen made an effort give Dean a core of solid characterization and the writers followed along whereas HP was never able to do that even from the beginning, maybe partly because the plot was so focused on him that it drove his characterization rather than the other way around.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Oh god, you're right. We should be grateful we only got just enough of Dean's life to keep them from going overboard.

But that was the line in the interview that jumped out at me too, that Sam wasn't going to be lovey-dovey anymore. You mean like when he was too closed off to be happy Dean wasn't dead anymore? When he tried to choke him and stepped over him to go with Ruby? When his eyes were turning black? When he was calling Dean weak? When he was just having to watch while Dean was hurt over his fantasies of heaven?

Even the climax of last season was more about Dean getting beaten up to remind Sam of his humanity while Lucifer was inside him--iow, Dean was more lovey dovey there.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I've never found Sam all that lovey-dovey about anything. The show has often maintained that Dean is the hard-boiled one while Sam is the tenderhearted softie but I think for so many viewers it's exactly the opposite. Sam had a few moments in the first three seasons where he seemed to have real affection for his brother but he always had a hardened streak of self-interest that was wholly absent from Dean. Since Season 4 -- so for nearly three years -- that side of Sam is the one we've seen more than any other. So I just can't imagine where Jared is getting this bizarre notion that Sam suddenly isn't going to be lovey-dovey anymore because of the 20 minutes he spent in "the worst part of hell." I'm sure he's getting this shit from the writers, which perfectly illustrates what I said a while back about reading interviews that make you go wtf? It astounds me that this is really how they see Sam...and it goes a long way to explaining why they haven't done anything to salvage his character. They don't even realize that he needs salvation.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I was a bit worried about that "worst part of hell" line because it sounds like an attempt to take what happened to Dean and that was actually a coherent emotional arc that Jensen played and just say "Sam had it worse." Probably without ever showing it. It's just an excuse to try to make Sam more of exactly what he was before without him going through actual trauma about it. I keep hearing "He has no ability to feel those emotions anymore." Which conveniently leads to not having to write the emotion or to act those emotions.

When Sam said the thing about not ever going after those people in this ep I didn't even think it was supposed to be going against Bobby's speech, because I thought Sam was basically saying he was coldly logical. Like, if course he was as brave as Dean but he saw those people were already dead so he wouldn't waste his time going after them. And I think that's the type of lovey dovey he always was if he was going to--he just was the one to bring up ethical questions like "But what about the monsters?" or whatever. Dean always seemed to one that was the marshmallow inside. He just limited it to people he considered family or innocents.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

it sounds like an attempt to take what happened to Dean and that was actually a coherent emotional arc that Jensen played and just say "Sam had it worse."

It's such childish, lazy one-upsmanship, and I lay that at Sera Gamble's feet. She keeps wanting to bring Sam to the forefront by making him look stronger than Dean or making him look more deserving of sympathy but it's not working. A while back I did a scene-by-scene breakdown of her "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and on closer analysis Sam comes off even worse than he did on first viewing...but then at the end of that ep, she basically had Dean apologizing to Sam and sympathizing with the "agony" he'd endured while Dean was dead...and none of it made a lick of sense.

[mangokulfi.livejournal.com]

Yeah by the end of the episode I was actually yearning for more D/L/B schmoop. The rest was just so dull. It was the only and interesting part of the entire episode.